The Inside Straight

Betting on the Bracelet
Pros Negotiate Odds and Wager on Themselves and Other Players to Win a World Series of Poker Event
By Kristy Arnett

"Negreanu, one -- Ivey, zero," Daniel Negreanu shouted just moments after winning his fourth World Series of Poker bracelet in a $2,000 limit hold'em event. He added almost $205,000 to his lifetime tournament winnings, but also added $200,000 to his bankroll, thanks to a bracelet bet that he had with Phil Ivey.

Whether it's for added excitement or the love of gambling, some pros believe that their edge to win a bracelet is so great at the WSOP that they figure, "Why not bet on it?" This year, there is a wide range of bets between some of poker's biggest names, all with different stipulations, odds, and prices. Some bets are so lucrative, in fact, that they can eclipse even an event's first-place prize.

"I have a standing bet with Ivey that anytime we both play in the same tournament, we have $200,000 bet on it," explained Negreanu. "It's interesting, though, because we also have a rule that if you show up late and the other guy is short, it doesn't count. Well, I showed up with a fresh stack, and he had lost half of his stack already, so we were off. Then, he got up to 3,200, and I had 3,600. He said, 'OK, we're back on.' Ha!"

One of the more popular bracelet bets is simply putting money against a player to win an event at the Series for the right odds. Negreanu said that he offered 5-to-1 odds. He considers that a steal, since he's won four bracelets in 11 years, and needs to win only one every six years to break even. Ivey, on the other hand, was rumored to have offered odds as low as 1.8-to-1.

"I hear that no one is better than 5-to-1 to win one, so I'm just going to try to prove them wrong and win some money at the same time," said Ivey.

Ten-time WSOP bracelet winner Doyle Brunson never misses out on side-bet action and has numerous wagers, including one with Ivey. "I laid him 3-to-1 that he wouldn't, and he wound up taking less than 2-to-1, which made me feel like an idiot. But I think he is finding out that the further he goes, the tougher it is to win one of those bracelets," Brunson said in his CardPlayer.com blog.

Ivey is known for being a high-stakes cash-game player and has admitted to losing patience in long tournaments that feature a first-place prize that is far less than what he could be earning elsewhere. The low buy-in, big-field WSOP tournaments have not always been Ivey's first choice of poker action.

"I have a lot of big bets on winning a bracelet, so I really don't have a choice. I have to play every event now," said Ivey. "Hopefully, I can win a bracelet in the next couple of weeks; that way, I don't have to play every event."

Another player who has capitalized on a bracelet bet is Erick Lindgren. Before winning the $5,000 mixed-hold'em event, he offered 4-to-3 odds on a bracelet. One taker was Barry Greenstein, who has some bets of his own. "I actually have bets that I'll win two bracelets, and that might seem a little cocky, but this is the first year that I'm not playing in the side games all the time," said Greenstein. "What people don't realize is that in the past, I've played overnight in the cash games. In most tournaments at the Series in the past, I've played on no sleep. I think I have a pretty good edge, and I'm pretty versatile as far as games are concerned."

Taking advantage of that versatility, Greenstein snagged a bracelet this year in the $1,500 razz event, and placed third in the $5,000 deuce-to-seven draw lowball with rebuys event.

"I don't like to say what the odds are, because I have a very big range in odds on these bracelet bets, and it is whatever I can talk the person into. That is part of the fun."

ESPN's 2008 WSOP Broadcasts Begin July 22
Tuesday is Again Poker Night on ESPN
By Bob Pajich

ESPN will begin broadcasting events from this year's World Series of Poker on Tuesday, July 22, starting with event No. 1, the $10,000 pot-limit hold'em world championship. It kicks off this season's broadcasts of the 2008 WSOP on Tuesdays from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET.

The final table of the WSOP main event will be what ESPN is calling a "near-live" broadcast. The main event will play down to the final nine this summer before returning to the Rio on Nov. 9, where they'll play down to the final two. The last two players will return to determine a champion on the evening of Nov. 10, and the final table will be broadcast on Nov. 11.

The full schedule follows:

Ask Jack

Rip: I run a weekly home game, and the following occurred recently: A player raised, and another player said, "Call," but he had not realized that the first player had raised. I said that a verbal call was binding, since he should have been paying attention, but Robert's Rules of Poker states that if a player is unaware that a pot has been raised, he can withdraw his bet and reconsider the action. What is the ruling?

Jack: According to Jack's Rules of Poker, if the player was acting in turn, the verbal call stands.

Sam: My local social club holds a weekly poker tournament, and it is open to the public. One week, when my table broke, I was moved to a new table, and there was a man there whom I'd never seen before. He had a lot of 5,000 chips that were not easy to see, so I asked him to move them to the front. I then jokingly asked the table what big hands the man had made to win so many chips. Nobody could recall one. I asked the tournament director to count the chips in play, because the man was so far above average and had been hiding his chips. The tournament director counted, and it became obvious that almost 100,000 in chips had been introduced into play, which could not have been the result of race-offs. We stopped the tournament at that point, but did not know what to do. What would you have done, and how can we avoid this type of cheating in the future?

Jack: If you were certain that this player introduced the chips, I would disqualify him and continue the tournament, or divide the prize money among the remaining players according to chip counts. If you could not prove that this was the case, I would divide the prize pool among the remaining players according to chips and not allow the gentleman to play again. In the future, you should have better security on your chips. Where did the 100,000 in chips come from? Who had access to the chips? Once you have determined how much should be in play, do a chip count on a break or when players reach the final table.

GSN Allows World Poker Tour Renewal Option to Lapse
Negotiations With Other Networks Continue
By Shawn Patrick Green

WPT Enterprises recently announced that the expiration date for GSN's renewal option for exclusive broadcast rights of the World Poker Tour came and went on June 7 without action. That does not necessary mean that season VII of the series will not be broadcast on the network.

WPTE is currently pitching the seventh season of the show to other major networks. The season begins filming on July 11, with the $15,000 Bellagio Cup VI, and is slated to end in April 2009.

Despite the WPT being shopped around, GSN CEO David Goldhill said that the network has not ruled out picking up season VII.

"The World Poker Tour has been a great partner, and the show continues to perform strongly on our network," Goldhill said. "We are continuing discussions with WPTE regarding how we may be able to work together - including perhaps broadcasting parts of season VII."

Episodes from season VI of the WPT will continue to be broadcast on GSN through August, and GSN has the option to rebroadcast episodes from season VI for up to four years. The Travel Channel currently holds the rights to episodes from seasons II-V.

Major Events Taking Place Right After the World Series of Poker
WPT, LAPT, and APT All Set to Commence
By Kristy Arnett

Once the grind that is the World Series of Poker ends, it is back on the road for die-hard poker players to continue their quest for more million-dollar prize pools and prestigious titles.

The World Poker Tour begins season VII with the Bellagio Cup IV, which will run simultaneously with the WSOP main event. Those who make it deep in the WSOP main event will have to wait until the Legends of Poker at The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California, to compete for a WPT title. Preliminary events there begin July 30, and the $10,000 buy-in main event starts Aug. 23.

The WPT Borgata Poker Open will take place in Atlantic City Sept. 21-25. It is another $10,000 buy-in event.

Players who are tired of the same old U.S. tourneys can take a trip to Uruguay for the Latin American Poker Tour event in Punta del Este. The buy-in is $2,700, and the event runs Aug. 7-9. This is the last event of the LAPT's first season. The first two events took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and San Jose, Costa Rica, and were very successful.

Another event happening overseas is the Asian Poker Tour stop in Macau. The StarWorld Hotel and Casino is hosting the $5,300 buy-in tournament Aug. 26-31; it will feature a guaranteed prize pool of $1.5 million.

Jacobo Fernandez Takes Over Top Spot on WSOP Leader Board
By Kristy Arnett

By the time this issue hits the stands, the 2008 World Series of Poker main event will be in full swing, and the WSOP Player of the Year (POY) will still be up in the air. At press time, with 38 events in the books, Jacobo Fernandez was in first place.
Fernandez may not be as well-known to the public as the other top contenders in the race, but regulars on the poker circuit know him well and have the utmost respect for his game. He is not a vocal person at the table, but his results speak volumes. He has more than $1.3 million in lifetime tournament earnings, and has cashed in five events thus far in the Series. Three of them were final tables, giving him a total of 2,832 points.

On the heels of Fernandez is David Benyamine. Not only did he win a bracelet in the $10,000 buy-in world championship Omaha eight-or-better event, but he also has made two other final tables. He has a total of four cashes, bringing his 2008 WSOP winnings to almost $911,000. He leads in money won so far at the Series, and has 2,148 points.

The top 10 spots have undergone numerous shuffles, but former leader Nenad Medic is still in contention. He held the number-one position for a few weeks after winning the first event of the Series, the $10,000 buy-in world championship pot-limit hold'em event, giving him 2,100 points.

Andy Bloch (2,080 points) and Chris Ferguson (2,045 points) are in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Both have made two final tables and nearly won bracelets. Bloch was the runner-up in the event that Medic won, and Ferguson finished second in the $10,000 world championship seven-card stud event.

Also in contention are first-time bracelet winners Scott Seiver and Vanessa Selbst. Seiver cashed in two events before taking down the $5,000 no-limit hold'em event. He is in sixth place with 1,949 points. Right behind him is Selbst, with 1,870 points. She won the $1,500 buy-in pot-limit Omaha event, and followed that up with a third-place finish in the $10,000 buy-in world championship heads-up no-limit hold'em event.

The WSOP POY is based on the Card Player POY point system, and points won count in both races. Fernandez cracked the top 10 in the Card Player POY race, and is sitting in ninth place with points won solely from his WSOP results. Also making a move up the ladder is Dario Minieri. After winning the $2,500 no-limit hold'em sixhanded event at the WSOP, he vaulted into fourth place. Minieri is also tied for eighth place in the WSOP POY race with Erick Lindgren and Duncan Bell.

David Chiu improved his Card Player POY position by making a WSOP final table, and is now in third place. Erik Seidel is still firmly planted in the number-one spot after padding his lead with a fifth-place finish in the $10,000 world championship seven-card stud event.

SpadeClub News

Tournament Schedule
$5,000 Weekly
July 13, 4 p.m. ET
July 20 , 4 p.m. ET

WPT Boot Camp Giveaway
July 12, 3 p.m. ET
July 26, 3 p.m. ET

$40,000 Monthly
Aug. 3, 4 p.m. ET

To view a complete list of SpadeClub tournaments offered, please visit: www.spadeclub.com/how-to-play/tournament-schedule.

SpadeClub Gets Involved
By Bethany Cermak

Join SpadeClub and ptseats.com on July 19 for the 2008 Card Player SpadeClub Classic at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Card Player SpadeClub Classic is a live poker event that starts at 7:15 p.m. in the Trump Taj Mahal poker room. The event has a $500 + $60 buy-in. Players will start with 20,000 in chips, and the blinds will increase every 30 minutes. Registration is open to everyone.

For more information or to register for the event and purchase your seat in advance, please visit www.ptseats.com.

SpadeClub Spotlight
By Lisa Anderson

SpadeClub members Charles "labotomy" Goodwin and Ken "Handbone" Meyer outlasted the competition during SpadeClub's first World Series $40K Giveaway tournament on June 1. Goodwin and Meyer both received the $12,000 grand-prize package from SpadeClub, which included a $10,000 main-event buy-in and $2,000 to use toward their travel expenses to Las Vegas for the World Series main event. Four SpadeClub Exclusive members risked nothing for the opportunity to be sponsored by SpadeClub in this summer's main event and potentially win millions of dollars.

Goodwin was thrilled to represent the entire SpadeClub community and was excited to play with all of the professional players he's seen on TV. When asked how he felt about his big win, Goodwin said, "Winning the World Series $40K Giveaway and a seat in the World Series makes me feel fan-damn-tastic!"

Meyer shared some advice with the whole SpadeClub community, saying, "As with anything, repetition is the key and practice makes perfect. I'm living proof of how far you can take it -- with nothing at risk."

To view complete interviews with SpadeClub winners, please visit www.spadeclub.com/news/landing.

Benefits of the Club
By Lisa Anderson

SpadeClub has partnered with Card Player Cruises and is offering a $50 per person discount to every Exclusive member on various cruises around the world. In addition to the cash discount, while on the cruise, Exclusive SpadeClub members will enjoy a private cocktail party and a personal poker lesson from 2008 Women in Poker Hall of Fame inductee Linda Johnson.

Check out www.spadeclub.com/club-rewards to learn more about all of the benefits that SpadeClub has to offer.

Promotions
By Lisa Anderson

SpadeClub is giving away eight free WPT Boot Camp seats, starting July 12. Become an Exclusive member to be automatically entered into an upcoming WPT Boot Camp Giveaway tournament. Are you already a SpadeClub member? Refer a friend who becomes an Exclusive member and you both will be automatically entered into an upcoming event. WPT Boot Camp gives players of all skill levels the opportunity to learn from, interact with, and play against top poker pros at the world's most exclusive poker venues. The first WPT Boot Camp Giveaway tournament starts July 12 and will be played every two weeks until all seats are awarded. If you've ever wanted to participate in a WPT Boot Camp, now's your chance! Please see the WTP Boot Camp ad on Page 18.

For more information, please visit www.spadeclub.com/promotions.

Final-Table Takedown
Grant Hinkle Captures First World Series of Poker Gold Bracelet
By Craig Tapscott With Grant Hinkle

In this new series, Card Player offers an in-depth analysis of the key hands that catapulted a player to a top tournament finish, online or live. We also will reveal key concepts and strategies from the world's best players as we venture inside their sometimes devious and always razor-sharp poker minds.

Grant Hinkle, 28, is a graduate of the University of Kansas and works as a marketing professional for a technology firm. Online, he won the $200 limit hold'em event of the Full Tilt Poker inaugural FTOPS for $145,000, and has made the final table of the Bodog $100,000-guaranteed and PartyPoker $750,000-guaranteed events. He also competes regularly in medium-stakes limit cash games, both live and online.

Event: 2008 World Series of Poker Event No. 2, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Players: 3,929
First Prize: $831,462
Finish: First
Key Concepts: Image, position, bet sizing, and reverse tells



Hinkle raises to 150,000 from the cutoff, holding the 5 3.

Grant Hinkle: This was the hand that gave me a lot of chips and got the ball rolling.

Coulthard calls from the button. Jones calls from the big blind.

Craig Tapscott: Is this just your normal raise or mindset to be aggressive from late position? What was the game plan?

GH: I wanted to be aggressive early on, because I could tell that certain players wanted to get to a certain pay level before they would be willing to start mixing it up. Obviously, with my hand, I was disappointed to get called in two spots, including a tough player with position on me.

Flop: 4 2 2

Jones checks. Hinkle bets 300,000. Coulthard calls. Jones folds.

CT: What's Coulthard up to with the smooth-call?

GH: I really believed he was just floating that flop with something like ace high, so I was praying for the ace to hit on the turn.

Turn: 6

GH: This put two spades on the board and made my straight. Since I thought he was floating me to take it away on the turn, I went ahead and checked to let him bluff at it. I was hoping that was his plan or that he would value-bet if he had a pair.

Coulthard bets 450,000.

CT: Do you just smooth-call in this situation?

GH: Well, I really believed he was pot-committed, so I just shoved.

Hinkle moves all in for 795,000, making it 520,000 more to Coulthard. Coulthard folds. Hinkle wins the pot of approximately 1,500,000.

CT: Let's go into the hands that set up and led to the elimination of a very dangerous opponent, Theo Tran. I know this next hand occurred before hand No. 47, but it contributed to setting up the final confrontation.



Hinkle raises from under the gun plus one to 125,000, holding the A K. Everyone folds around to Theo Tran's big blind. Tran calls.

CT: He is an obvious defender, and I know this hand sets up a big play that you make against him later.

GH: Yes. He defends his blinds pretty liberally and is not afraid to play post-flop and put pressure on people.

Flop: Q 4 2

Tran checks.

CT: Automatic continuation-bet?

GH: It was a decent flop to continuation-bet, but Theo also knows it was a decent flop for it. So, early on, I thought it was best to keep the pot small, take one off, and delay the c-bet till the turn. This gave me a chance to make a pair, and also made it look like I may be slow-playing a big hand.

Turn: 5

Tran bets out 175,000.

CT: What range are you putting him on with this bet?

GH: Theo's range is so wide here that he could have anything. I believed with this bet that he was pretty weak, and had either air or a very small pair. I chose to call, but took my time and executed a common tell for when amateur players have a very strong hand. This would work only with my being a relatively unknown player, as well as being up against an aware opponent.

Hinkle calls.

CT: Wait a minute now. Share the tell that you gave.

GH: Basically, I just acted like I hated the board and his bet, and appeared distraught about the situation before calling. Since I am not a known player, I thought this would be effective if used in a situation in which I needed to pull off a bluff against a thinking player. Players who don't have a lot of live experience tend to do this when they have a huge hand. So, it was basically a reverse tell.

River: 8

Tran checks.

CT: Is he looking to just get to showdown here?

GH: I thought that he was still weak, and A-K might be the best hand, but he also may have hit a small pair, so I didn't think I could risk showing down A-K. With the pot holding a little more than 650,000, and having about 700,000 left, I jammed all in to discourage a weak pair from calling.

Tran instantly mucks.

GH: The reverse tell may or may not have contributed to his decision to slow down on the river. He may have just been stabbing at it on the turn with air, or folded a weak pair.

Hinkle wins the pot of approximately 650,000.



The action is folded to Hinkle on the button, who raises to 250,000 with the A 4. Tran calls from the small blind. Ferguson folds in the big blind.

Flop: A K 4

Tran checks.

CT: You've flopped a huge hand. Take us through your thought process of how you're going to get the most value with it.

GH: Obviously, it's a great-looking flop for my hand. Based on Theo's call out of the small blind when Chris was very short, he probably has a decent hand. At this point, I'm hoping that he has an A-X type of hand instead of a medium pair. I need to get money in the pot, though, so I bet a little more than half of the pot.

Hinkle bets 350,000. Tran calls.

Turn: A

CT: Great card. What will he put you on if you continue to bet?

GH: If he called with K-X or A-X, he will be less likely to put me on an ace and more likely to put me on a bluff.

Hinkle bets 700,000. Tran calls.

River: 8

GH: A meaningless card. Now I was concerned only about getting the most that he would call into the pot. Then I thought about the hand between us earlier (No. 27), in which I shoved an all-in overbet on the river and he mucked. So, I thought that if he had a hand with any decent showdown value at all, he would call this time. I shoved all in, and he called pretty quickly.

Tran calls and turns over the A Q.

GH: It turned out to be a cooler for Tran. But based on my active image and previous hand history against him, I believed I would have received calls from a lot wider range here.

Hinkle wins the pot of approximately 6,600,000.

GH: I was relieved to have eliminated Theo Tran, an extremely tough competitor. I discovered later that there may have been more metagame in play here versus Tran than I knew at the time. He found out that I was Blair Hinkle's brother, a known aggressive player whom he had tangled with relentlessly in the recent World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic main event. This may have influenced his read that I could be three-barrel bluffing in this spot.

This pot catapulted me to about 9,000,000 in chips, which was about 75 percent of the chips in play going into threehanded play.

Hinkle would eventually go heads up against James Akenhead before taking down the title and the coveted bracelet.

Hand2Hand Combat
Charder30 Contemplates a Sick Spot With A-K in the EPT Grand Final Main Event
By Craig Tapscott

Want to study real poker hands with the Internet's most successful players? In this series, Card Player offers hand analysis with online poker's leading talent.

Event: 2008 European Poker Tour PokerStars Grand Final main event
Buy-in: $15,000
Grand Prize: $3,193,822
Blinds: 150-300
Stacks: Charder30 -- 45,100; Villain -- 53,000

Craig Tapscott: Set the beginning stages of this hand for us. At this point, you were pretty deep-stacked compared to the blinds.

Christian Harder: I have a pretty active image, but I don't think I have a bad image. To start the hand off, an older French gentleman minimum-raised to 600 from one seat before the hijack position, and a Scandinavian player called from the hijack seat. Then from the cutoff, a young, very aggressive Norwegian named Stephan Kjerstad three-bet to 3,000.

CT: What did you make of this?

CH: Thus far, he had demonstrated that he was a maniac, so he could have had any two cards.

CT: And he had a big stack to sling around?

CH: Yeah. He also had a lot of chips, about 50,000, and more than covered the two guys to his right. The button thought about it briefly before folding, and Eric "p3achy_keen" Liu folded from the small blind rather quickly.

CT: I see that you threw in the nationality of your opponents. Do you find this to be a good gauge to judge their actions? Of course, we've all seen the Scandinavians play a wild and very aggressive style.

CH: Yes. The Scandis generally play a more aggressive style. Many of them are very aggressive preflop and post-flop. They like to apply a lot of pressure, which is a great way to play. I'd much rather play against a German or Canadian than a good, aggressive Scandi. It's funny, when I play online and have a tough decision to make against a random opponent, I'll often use the location tell. If he's from Oslo or Copenhagen, I'll call. And if he's from Topeka, I'll fold!

CT: What have been your biggest obstacles in making the transition from online to live play?

CH: Like most online players who are used to playing lots of tables, playing one table can be frustrating. I often would get bored and not play well when I first began playing live. Being patient is definitely one of the most important things to remember.

CT: So, the action was on you in the big blind. What did you peek down at?

CH: The A K. Since I was sitting with about 150 big blinds here, I had a lot of options, but it was still a really awkward spot. I decided, being so deep, to simply flat-call. When I did that, both the original raiser and flat-caller quickly folded.

CT: How often would you reraise in this spot?

CH: I'd say about a third of the time. It's a really close spot, because four-betting and getting it in … that's kind of gross. Yet, it could very well be the best option. I didn't really consider four-betting and folding to a shove, because I just don't like folding here.

CT: Do you think that A-K is one of the most overplayed hands early in tournaments?

CH: That's hard to say. A lot of players who are new to the game play it very fast and are willing to go broke with A-K, preflop or even in the first hand of the tournament. And that's generally a mistake, as most people will be playing tight and not be willing to get it in without a huge hand in the first couple of hours.

Flop: A 10 8 (7,350 pot)

Charder30 checks. Villain bets 6,000.

CT: That's a pretty good flop. Do you proceed cautiously or check-raise to see where you're at? What are your best options here, and why?

CH: I thought about it for a while and decided that my best option was to call, but I think raising small and snap-calling a shove also would be fine. My opponent was a certified maniac, and he goes by the name "Delagator" online. He has a reputation for being crazy, so …

Charder30 calls 6,000.

Turn: 6 (19,350 pot)

Charder30 checks.

CT: Did you plan all of your options to counter his actions before you checked, and what were they?

CH: I think that against this specific opponent, I need to check 100 percent of my range on the turn here, and let him fire a second barrel. So, I check, with no real plans of folding, until …

Villain shoves all in, putting charder30 all in for 36,100.

CT: Now what? This had to be totally unexpected.

CH: This action certainly caught me off guard. I didn't expect him to put me all in for almost 1.9 times the pot. This was a really sick spot.

CT: Share all of the things that were going through your head. This wasn't just a $100 online tourney; it was a $10,000 main event with a $3 million first prize.

CH: This was just such a disgusting spot. With him putting me all in for almost two times the pot, I was kind of lost. He played so aggressively. But I wasn't sure if he was willing to bluff me in this spot. Every hand he had played was running through my head, and then I honed in on his demeanor on the turn. He seemed nervous. But I wasn't sure what that meant.

CT: Can you put him on a hand here?

CH: With all of the draws out there, he could be protecting a big hand or he could have a draw. He also could have A-Q or A-K. (I think I took more than 10 minutes. It was the last hand before the break, though, so I wasn't disrupting play.) I also thought he could have hands such as 10-9, for second pair and a gutshot. My hand looked a lot like J-J to K-K, mainly because of my flat-call preflop and my going into the tank on the flop.

So, I decided to call, and he flipped over the A 10 for top two pair.

River: 5 (91,550 pot)

CH: I bricked the river and lost the pot. And now, Kjerstad was the chip leader of the event.

CT: In retrospect, how would you have played it differently?

CH: It was a sick hand that I unfortunately lost. I think I played it optimally, with the exception of maybe four-betting preflop. Live and learn.



Christian "charder30" Harder has nearly $1 million in cashes in online tournaments. He won the Full Tilt $1K Monday for $81,000 in the fall of 2007, along with the PokerStars $100 rebuy multiple times. He recently took down the PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand for more than $20,000, and followed that up by winning a $10,000 seat in the World Series of Poker main event. At the age of 20, Christian also has more than $350,000 in winnings in live tournaments.

Online Zone
Alec Torelli on Heads-Up Poker
By Shawn Patrick Green

Twenty-one-year-old Alec Torelli, known as "traheho" online, made his first World Series of Poker cash one to remember when he made it to heads up versus Kenny Tran for a bracelet. After defeating seven other opponents in the $10,000 heads-up no-limit hold'em world championship, he came up just short in his final matchup against Tran, but still earned almost $337,000 for his excellent showing. And at his age, it's not like he doesn't have time on his side to make another bracelet run.

Torelli is well-known as an online poker player, and his biggest cash in the online poker realm occurred when he took down an event in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) III - a $500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament with 3,217 entrants -- which was good for $228,000.

Card Player recently spoke to Torelli about heads-up strategy and what it takes to go deep in major live and online events.

Shawn Patrick Green: Is there any credibility to the notion of having momentum in a heads-up match, or is that just kind of a mental thing?

Alec "traheho" Torelli: Well, both, actually. It's good for you and bad for them, so it's twice as good for you. It's like having a swing; if you were going to win $2,000 and then you ended up losing $2,000, it's a $4,000 swing. It's the same sort of thing.

If you're playing well, you can see the frustration on their faces. You can just see it, because you're in every hand, and it's hard not to show emotion. Whereas in a full ring game, you're supposed to fold basically every hand and you're supposed to lose hands, so when you show emotion, it's OK, because it's not as bad, and you're not going to be playing a hand for a while. But in heads up, you can see it, and you can see each pot affecting a player, so when you get a lot of momentum built up, they're left there feeling like they're doing something wrong and that they can't win. And eventually it just spirals downward.

SPG: In a heads-up match, what patterns or tells are you looking for to help you determine how to play against an opponent?

AT: Betting patterns, I think, are the most important. With physical tells … I'm not sure if people give off too many in a big event like this, although I picked up some. In some small pots, you limp from the button and you have 100 big blinds, and they think the pot doesn't matter, so they'll just check, and it's kind of obvious that they have nothing. But, as far as big pots are concerned, I don't think that ever really comes up with any of these players, that they're going to give anything away.

But betting patterns are really important. If people are going to value-bet their marginal hands, that's a really important thing to know. If they're going to value-bet marginal hands, that makes them really hard to play against, because they could be bluffing, value-betting [a marginal hand], or betting a big hand. As I found against Lyle Berman, whom I played during the WSOP event, he wouldn't value-bet marginal hands. When he bet the river, it would be either "I've made a huge hand" or "I'm bluffing." That really polarizes their range, which means that it's side A or side B; it's one thing or the other, which makes it a lot easier to play against, because there are a lot fewer combinations of hands that they could have. So, that's really important to notice, and that's probably the most important thing to pick up. And it helps to pick it up early on so that you can adjust accordingly.

SPG: If it helps to pick it up early on, are you making a lot more loose calls on the river early on just to see what they have, even if you don't think you can win the hand?

AT: Yeah, usually. Like, against Lyle, I called a huge bet on the river with third or fourth pair and he had a set. I thought he was either bluffing or had a huge hand - and he had a huge hand. The next time, I checked and he checked down top pair against me. So, I knew not to value-bet marginal hands against him, because he was only going to call with better, and he was only going to make big folds to me, because he played a really tight style. I learned that early, and I was able to capitalize on it.

SPG: At 21, you're still relatively green in live tournaments, although you've played some overseas. What were the adjustments that you needed to make when you first started playing live tournaments?

AT: I've been making adjustments constantly to my live game; it's a lot different than online in some aspects. Mainly, it's just patience, because you're not seeing as many hands. Sometimes in the World Series events, it's 10-handed instead of ninehanded, and you need to make some adjustments and play a little tighter from early position. It's hard to do that, especially if you're having a bad day and you've lost a few tournaments in a row and your table's really weak and you want to play hands against them. You convince yourself to open in marginal spots, and it hurts you.

For me, it's just patience and waiting for good spots. Sometimes you know the right decision, but it's hard to make it because it's so boring. For me, that's the hardest thing. I'm pretty sure that if you ask most players, especially the young online players, they'll probably say the same thing.

SPG: In that case, then, is it easier to play online, or are there some offsetting factors that make it easier to play live?

AT: If you're playing your best, it's easier to play live. If you can play the same game you play online when you play live, it is 100 times easier to play live, just because the fields are worse and other players are giving off more physical reads than you are. But playing that A-game is so hard to do live, just because you're not used to it because you don't do it every day; online, it's easy, as you can eat a banana while sitting at your computer, watch TV, play X-Box ... you can do anything while playing online.

SPG: You probably shouldn't do anything, but … [laughing]

AT: Yeah, but you can keep yourself entertained. So, it's a lot easier to play your best game online. And that's the biggest factor for me, and, I think, for most people.

SPG: What is on your checklist of information that you go over in every hand that you play?

AT: First, generally, it's going to be, "Is this hand profitable to play in this position?" Also, another really important thing is who is behind you, whether you're in a tournament or a cash game. Who is left to act, including the blinds? Are they going to reraise you a lot? Are they going to call you a lot? It's also about how they're going to play on the flop against you. Are they just calling stations? Should you bet the flop against them if they're just going to call you down with anything? A lot of times, it's just better to give up than continuation-bet, even though most of the time you should continuation-bet. But sometimes, against players who are just going to call you or make moves against you, you've got to know how to act and react against them. So, that's really important to factor in.

I'd say those are the most important things, before the hand, at least. During the hand, obviously, there are other things to take into consideration, but before you open with any two cards, those are the most important things to look at.

SPG: What's the best "getting started" advice you can give to someone aspiring to become a full-time poker player?

AT: Oh, wow. I don't know, "Don't"? [laughing] You have to really want to do it. You have to really want to just play poker. You really have to want to just win. You have to be upset if you get second for $300,000 in a heads-up event.

SPG: As a random example [laughing].

AT: As a prime example, honestly. If you're happy that you got second because you made $300,000, poker's not for you. If you're upset that you got second because you wanted to win, and you don't consider the money until later, you have a shot. You have to really just want it and you have to have heart.

And, obviously, you have to work at it; you have to practice, you have to do your homework, you have to study hands, and you have to talk to people. That's all a given; it's the same with any sport. I don't think that Kobe [Bryant] is too happy right now that he got second place, even though he's getting paid like $50 million a year. If you have that attitude toward poker, of just wanting to make money, and you think it's an easy way to make money, you're in for a rude awakening, I think.

Generation Next
Jonathan Aguiar: On the Road to Fearless Poker
By Craig Tapscott

Jonathan Aquiar fell in love with poker while completing a bachelor's degree in computer science at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. To satiate his hunger for the game, he started poker-club tournaments with school funds, sometimes drawing as many as 200 players. By his senior year, he yearned for more experience, more knowledge, and stronger competition. He found it in an underground MIT cash game.

"It was a $2-$5-$10 no-limit hold'em cash game," said Aguiar. "There were a lot of $1,000-$3,000 stacks. I played in this game for about 30 hours a week during my senior year. There were some big fish there. But there were also some extremely talented young players participating. I learned a lot about deep-stack poker."

Eventually, Aguiar took his honed live game online, buying in as a deceptive short stack for only 20 big blinds in high-stakes $25-$50 or $50-$100 cash games. He killed them, eventually building a substantial bankroll before many regulars could adjust to his style. A few online tournament professionals took notice, inviting him under their wings for tutelage. The bumpy transition temporarily set back his roll, but he's pulled through to the sunny side of variance over the last eight months.

At the 2007 World Poker Tour World Poker Finals, he finished 17th for $46,000, and recently took sixth place in event No. 5 of the 2008 World Series of Poker, $1,000 no-limit hold'em with rebuys, for $130,234. Aguiar, 24, has grown to love the competition of tournaments and the perpetual quest to be the last man standing.

Craig Tapscott: What were some of the lessons you learned when making the transition from multitable tournaments from cash games?

Jonathan Aguiar: The adjustment for antes was very important. I just had to catch up in certain areas of my skill set. One of the things I was doing wrong was opening with trashy hands when there were too many stacks of 10-20 big blinds behind me that could easily move all in preflop.

CT: Explain, please.

JA: Too many people try to steal the blinds when they're in the cutoff and the button has 11 big blinds, and the big blind has around 14 big blinds. You can't do that, because if the button shoves, you pretty much have to call with any two cards, or the big blind might shove and you will have to fold a lot of marginal hands. That's one of the holes I had to plug.

CT: Can you talk more about adjusting when the antes kick in?

JA: Generally, you have to play looser when antes are in play. Most good players start to open up their games when the antes kick in. There's just so much more to play for when it's folded to you in late position. And now the blinds are getting better pot odds. You're just going to be playing a lot more pots when the antes are there. That's why players like Kenny Tran are so good, because they play a lot of pots and pick up many pots preflop and with continuation-bets.

CT: You seem to have an advantage over other Internet players who haven't seen as much deep-stack live action as you.

JA: I did learn how to carry myself in a live environment. I feel very comfortable with the chips, sizing up opponents' stacks, and getting a read. One thing I'll share is that a lot of Internet players give off chip tells that live players would never give off.

CT: On that note, what do you need to do to improve your tournament game?

JA: I need to become more bold and fearless when it comes to making big plays, big bluffs, and big calls. I think I play a little too cautiously at times. I need to open up and three-bet in some situations in which my image and the table dynamics make it correct. That's what separates the very best players from just good players.

CT: What's next for Jonathan "FatalError" Aguiar?

JA: I want to win. The money has been nice, and it allows me to lead a comfortable life. I mean, I would otherwise be fraught withnine-to-five cubicles if I had stayed on my original path. But I've given thought to applying for business school or going to work for a hedge fund. I'll play out all of the 2008 World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour events, and then take it month by month and see what comes.

Card Player Pro Poker Savvy
Limped Pots and Big Bluffs
By Isaac Haxton

In this column, we will examine a scenario in which I thought it was profitable to make a multistreet bluff in a limped pot. Additionally, you can watch the video of this hand on CardPlayer.com for a richer learning experience.

Game: $1-$2 sixhanded no-limit hold'em on PokerStars
Opponents: Loose-passive fish
Stack: $230
My Position: Small blind
My Cards: 7 6

This hand began with a player who had just sat down and had posted the $2 blind in the cutoff. The first two players folded, and the new arrival checked. The button, who had played very loose-passive poker, limped in behind the player who posted. I completed my small blind with the 7 6, and the big blind, another loose-passive player, checked.

For 7-1 odds to complete the small blind, you can profitably play almost any hand if your opponents are likely to have weak hands and if you can confidently outplay them post-flop.

There are a few things to keep in mind when playing these small unsuited hands out of the small blind in a multi-way pot:
First, you played the hand because you were getting a great price. You can afford to check and fold a lot of flops as long as you occasionally get into a very profitable situation.

Second, your one-pair hands are trash. You're almost never going to win a four-way pot with one pair.

Third, your two-pair and trips hands are mostly trash, as well. If you hold 7-6 offsuit, and the flop comes 7-7-5 rainbow, it is easy to get excited. However, if you manage to get $200 into a pot of $8, you're going to be smoked almost every time against anyone but a complete maniac. I'm not saying you shouldn't be happy to see that flop, but you need to exercise some pot control. If you lead out, consider only calling if you get raised. If you check, consider check-calling.

It may sound bad that when you flop bottom two pair, you have to be wary of playing your hand too hard. But this is a bad thing only when 7-6 offsuit flops a big hand. The rest of the time, this points to a largely unexploited fact, which is in my opinion one of the best reasons to complete the small blind with almost any hand against one or more weak limpers: Limped pots often provide a thinking player with excellent bluffing opportunities!

The flop came A Q 3. I checked, the big blind led out for $4, the posting player folded, and the button called.

The big blind can have almost anything here, except for most of the strongest possible hands. He probably would have raised with A-A, Q-Q, or A-Q preflop, so the only two-pair or better hands he is likely to have are A-3, Q-3, or 3-3. This logic applies even more so to the button after he calls. Not only is he likely to raise preflop with most of the hands that flop strongest on this board, but if he had hit the flop hard, he'd be much more likely to raise than call. If I assume that I will almost never get called down for a full stack by a one-pair hand, all of this adds up to an excellent spot to run a big bluff.

I raised to $16. Both players called.

The turn was the 10. I fully expected to be called by one-pair hands and draws, and to have to fire multiple barrels. I bet $45. The big blind folds, and the button calls.

At this point, I'm expecting the button's range to be mainly one-pair hands - often A-J, K-Q, Q-J, K-10, and J-10, which also have a gutshot - and often just random A-X top pairs. I plan on shoving any river card and expect almost never to be called by less than two pair.

The river was the 8.

This is a decent river. On one hand, he may have hit his flush, and he's certainly calling if he did. On the other hand, I can credibly have a flush myself, and the spade should further discourage top pair and even two pair from calling. I follow through and shove for $167. The button goes into the tank and eventually calls with A-10, the turned two pair.

Despite the outcome, I believe this hand was played very well, and this line stands to show a healthy profit on average. My read was correct; my opponent had only one pair on the flop, and even after turning two pair, he thought he had a somewhat difficult decision on the river.

One of the oldest adages is, "Don't go broke in a limped pot." I hope this column gives you some good ideas on how to profitably turn this bit of old wisdom on its head and exploit situations in which your opponents need a very strong hand to call and are not likely to have one.

To watch Isaac Haxton comment on and play this hand, point your browser to Card Player Pro, the complete online poker training site, at www.CardPlayer.com/link/isaac2.